Around 130,000 Ukrainians have sought refuge in Romania, a neighboring country to Ukraine which is one of the poorest countries in the EU. There are roughly twice as many Ukrainian refugees as there are in Sweden.
It had been a year since Olesia and her 17-year-old daughter Elisavet tried to move back home to Odessa. Olesia still cries when she thinks about it. They fled to Bucharest when the war started because Olesia had a friend in the city – but both longed for home and they thought they would try to live in their apartment in Odsesa again.
The apartment overlooks the Black Sea. The apartment that Olesia had been saving for years to buy. But after a few days, Russia started attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure.
– It was 12 degrees in the apartment. No electricity, no water, no heat. When we came back to Bucharest it was fantastic, she tells TV4 Nyheterna.
In Odessa, they have a large apartment with their own furniture. In Bucharest they live in a small studio. But safety is more important. They decided to stay in Romania.
No more payouts
But it is not entirely easy to be a refugee in Romania. Olesia speaks neither Romanian nor English. At home she worked as a lawyer, but in Romania she has not found a job and instead they have lived on the financial support they have received from the Romanian state. Until now.
Last summer, Romania overhauled the system of support for Ukrainian refugees, and the financial assistance for housing disappeared for many. Olesia had to use her savings to pay rent. She had saved the money to send Elisavet to a good university, perhaps in Western Europe. But, despite that, Elisavet does not complain.
– I’m a smart girl. I’m sure I can handle it, she says.
Families have moved back
But Elisavet also knows that many other families have had no assets to use now that the government support for rents has not been paid out. She knows about a dozen families who have moved back. Despite the coming winter, and despite the brutal Russian attacks on the country’s civilian infrastructure.
It is something that Melania Madelenu has also noticed. She runs a center for Ukrainian refugees in Bucharest and she has seen how many have packed their bags and moved back to the war.
But, she can also understand the Romanians who believe that the country must help its own population first.
– Outside the cities, Romania is incredibly poor. People there cannot understand why Ukrainians should get help, she says.